I have to learn a bit now on cleaning, I keep hearing that the surplus ammo is hard on them if you don't clean it right.

Dead easy- buy yourself 2 .30 caliber "mop" cleaning brushes. Pull the bolt out, soak one mop in soapy, hot water and run it through the bore 5 times. Rinse and repeat for 2-3 cycles. Use the other mop to dry the bore. Then switch to regular cleaning equipment- bronze brush, bore cleaner, patches, etc. Last off, make sure to oil it before you put it away.

BTW- you can use a heat gun to melt the inevitable cosmoline and then use brake cleaner to take off the remains. Just avoid getting the stock too wet with brake cleaner- it will melt the varnish.

__________________
I was born... I shall die... but the time in between is mine.

I call bullshit on the mag springs being bad or set or whatever the catchphrase being used now-They are like unicorns, people talk about them but unless its an older gun with the flat spring in the mag, they just don't hardly happen
Maybe a dirty mag.
If I have a mag fail to feed it gets one chance, I take them apart, clean them and reassemble them. If the mag lips or follower are jacked they go away..

said his glock is from 1992. i think he could benefit from all new springs, especially mag springs.

quality mags are also definitely important with 1911s. call bs all you want.

personal example with glock mags: when i started reloading 9mm several years ago, i had a load that seemed ok but my glock 26 wasn't feeding 100%. probably closer to 50%. asked around, experts told me to try new mags first (those mags were 5 years old and always loaded). worked like a charm. never had a failure since then. last year i replaced the second batch of mags with new ones. cheap insurance.

I have a hard time buying a 22 since I already have 2 perfectly functional ones. The 7.62x54, well, I didn't have that. Plus the gun was $150 and ammo is dirt cheap.

I have to learn a bit now on cleaning, I keep hearing that the surplus ammo is hard on them if you don't clean it right.

I do this a great deal....my way is even more simple if that is possible. Funnel, water pour.

All you are really tying to do is get the salts out of the bore....and make no mistake they do rust up quick....how quick you may ask. Go to range in the morning, shoot till 11 or so, go out to eat with the guys at the little country bisket and gravey place, get home and you have rust already...about 4 hours from last round to starting to clean the thing.

If you get into playing with these surplus guns....well surplus guns of all kinds that they can be all over the place. This one will shoot great....that one will shoot all over the paper....if it hits the paper 5 out of 5 times. It all depends on how Ivan took care of it during the war and how Olga packed it away.

You will have fun with it....I just love old military hardware.

__________________[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Calling an illegal alien an 'undocumented immigrant'
is like calling a drug dealer an 'unlicensed pharmacist[/FONT]

Dead easy- buy yourself 2 .30 caliber "mop" cleaning brushes. Pull the bolt out, soak one mop in soapy, hot water and run it through the bore 5 times. Rinse and repeat for 2-3 cycles. Use the other mop to dry the bore. Then switch to regular cleaning equipment- bronze brush, bore cleaner, patches, etc. Last off, make sure to oil it before you put it away.

BTW- you can use a heat gun to melt the inevitable cosmoline and then use brake cleaner to take off the remains. Just avoid getting the stock too wet with brake cleaner- it will melt the varnish.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FPGT72

I do this a great deal....my way is even more simple if that is possible. Funnel, water pour.

All you are really tying to do is get the salts out of the bore....and make no mistake they do rust up quick....how quick you may ask. Go to range in the morning, shoot till 11 or so, go out to eat with the guys at the little country bisket and gravey place, get home and you have rust already...about 4 hours from last round to starting to clean the thing.

If you get into playing with these surplus guns....well surplus guns of all kinds that they can be all over the place. This one will shoot great....that one will shoot all over the paper....if it hits the paper 5 out of 5 times. It all depends on how Ivan took care of it during the war and how Olga packed it away.

You will have fun with it....I just love old military hardware.

Awesome, thanks. Doesn't sound nearly as hard as some make it out to be.

I bought this Remington cleaning stuff last night when I got the gun, I'm pretty sure it's just overpriced brake cleaner. It didn't do too terrible of a job getting stuff off though. I got it cleaned fairly well then sprayed it with Rem oil. I'm going to run a few rounds through it then tear it back down and clean again. Hopefully I got a good shooter, guess I'll find out.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with this thing. Too bad we can't rifle hunt deer in Ohio, this would be an interesting one to take hunting.

Thanks for that forum link also, I'm heading there now. Can't say I'm really 'into' these guns, just thought that it was a cool gun to own.

There were quite a few others, but I didn't feel I was educated enough to make a decision. 8mm Mousers mostly. This one was easy. I texted a friend that had one, he said buy it.

Old military stuff is where my intrests lie....be carefull it can be a slippery slope.

One last thing on these, every once and a while a "special" one will get into the normal shelf...check out what all the little marks and numbers actually mean. It is amazing what some of these rifles go for....and on the surface they all look the same.

__________________[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Calling an illegal alien an 'undocumented immigrant'
is like calling a drug dealer an 'unlicensed pharmacist[/FONT]

said his glock is from 1992. i think he could benefit from all new springs, especially mag springs.

quality mags are also definitely important with 1911s. call bs all you want.

personal example with glock mags: when i started reloading 9mm several years ago, i had a load that seemed ok but my glock 26 wasn't feeding 100%. probably closer to 50%. asked around, experts told me to try new mags first (those mags were 5 years old and always loaded). worked like a charm. never had a failure since then. last year i replaced the second batch of mags with new ones. cheap insurance.

Thanks for the additional info urbancowboy. I have noticed some failure to feed with the baby Glocks. I've had mine shot by others and they had problems but it was operator induced, small hands, weak grip,not holding gun tight enough. I had a lady in a carry class 2 weeks ago who every 4th and 5th shot had a failure to feed on 5 shot strings fired at her pace (2 year old gun and with all 4 mags). When I had her return to the ready position then aim and fire she had no failures to feed. Seems after 3 consecutive shots with the baby glock in .40 cal her grip loosened up from the recoil and the gun movement in her hands affected the slide operation (limp wrist).
Again you and I have shared first hand knowledge just as Juanjo_NY did. What's sad and amusing is some tacticool armchair shooter will read our three posts and arrive at the conclusion that 66% off all glock owners have mag problems.

Old military stuff is where my intrests lie....be carefull it can be a slippery slope.

One last thing on these, every once and a while a "special" one will get into the normal shelf...check out what all the little marks and numbers actually mean. It is amazing what some of these rifles go for....and on the surface they all look the same.

Cool deal man, thanks for all of the help. At this point I need to educate myself more, and probably any others I buy would be gun show, online, or private party. I have a friend with an FFL, so online shopping is pretty easy. I need to look at a lot more and get a better idea what I'm looking at.

Something is wrong with the P 238. I have shot mine a lot and not had one misfire. Never seen it listed as an issue before. My glock 23 on the other hand has started failing to extract. Trying to sort that out.

It's official. I think there is something wrong with the sig. Shot 15 rounds threw it today with Winchester shells and two jams. I'm going to try a new magazine and different shells and if the problem happens again, it's gone. I'm getting rid of the s&w 642 too. It kicks way to hard for my wife. Will be trading it in next week for something else. Bummer.

__________________Donovan: If he (Paul McCartney) fell on the piano, by the time he picked himself up he would have written three songs.

It's official. I think there is something wrong with the sig. Shot 15 rounds threw it today with Winchester shells and two jams. I'm going to try a new magazine and different shells and if the problem happens again, it's gone. I'm getting rid of the s&w 642 too. It kicks way to hard for my wife. Will be trading it in next week for something else. Bummer.

That is a bummer. How many rounds have you put through it? They've gotten so high you can't just go run 300-400 rounds through them like you used to be able to do to knock the rough edges off.

It's official. I think there is something wrong with the sig. Shot 15 rounds threw it today with Winchester shells and two jams. I'm going to try a new magazine and different shells and if the problem happens again, it's gone. I'm getting rid of the s&w 642 too. It kicks way to hard for my wife. Will be trading it in next week for something else. Bummer.

Do a detail strip and clean it thoroughly using cotton swabs and an old toothbrush with some solvent. I like acetone or lacquer thinner. Take the magazines apart and wash them out, then check for bent feed lips. Get the bore and chamber squeaky clean with a wire bore brush. Inspect for problems, then reassemble, lubing as you go. And try some different ammo.

If you still have the little stock grips on the 642, I wouldn't blame her for not liking it. Try some bigger rubber ones, maybe Pachmayrs. There's also nothing wrong with using .38 Special wadcutter target loads. They will reduce felt recoil and still be effective.

Do a detail strip and clean it thoroughly using cotton swabs and an old toothbrush with some solvent. I like acetone or lacquer thinner. Take the magazines apart and wash them out, then check for bent feed lips. Get the bore and chamber squeaky clean with a wire bore brush. Inspect for problems, then reassemble, lubing as you go. And try some different ammo.

If you still have the little stock grips on the 642, I wouldn't blame her for not liking it. Try some bigger rubber ones, maybe Pachmayrs. There's also nothing wrong with using .38 Special wadcutter target loads. They will reduce felt recoil and still be effective.

I've cleaned this Sig down to the nitty gritty couple of times, but i'll do it again.

Yeah, its stone stock, but she hates it. We did run the .38+p's through it, but its in her head now. She needs something less then that.

__________________Donovan: If he (Paul McCartney) fell on the piano, by the time he picked himself up he would have written three songs.